Betty Lou’s – Gluten Free Fruit Bars

Tested: Strawberry & Blueberry Flavors

I really miss those fruit bars and figgy type cookies and was most excited to find these at the local natural foods store – the gluten free part totally caught my eye and I was ever-so excited when I read the ingredients and found them to be vegan that there may have been a little squeeeee let out right there in the aisle. For $1.29 a bar I found the price not too shabby for what ‘cha get. Score! Our natural foods store only carried the cherry & blueberry flavors, but there is also an apple-cinnamon and strawberry flavor available (if you can’t find these are your local natural foods store you can order them from the Betty Lou’s website, amazon, vegan essentials, etc. ). Dan was also excited I found these as he misses those nutrigrain bars he used to eat and figgy cookies, too. We actually smelled the bars through their wrappers before dinner (because we just had to, you know!) and right then and there decided they were to be most excellent.

Breaking them out of their wrapper they have a nice fruit smell – the blueberry smelled as it should and so did the cherry flavor, which was a great start. The bars are kind of heavy for their size, we took it to mean they’re filled with lots of awesome, and when we bit into each of our halves it was decidedly so. The fruit filling for both flavors was absolutely delicious, not artificial tasting, not too sweet, they were just right. While Dan preferred the cherry flavor, mine ended up being blueberry. I like blueberries in small doses, but these were just so delicious I found myself wanting more blueberry tastiness. The cookie/gluten-free flour part of the bar is great – it’s really oaty and dense, but in a good way. We both enjoyed the texture and was decided between the two of us that the outside to filling ratio was spot on. We’ll definitely be buying these again, and yes – they tasted like a fruit bar-fig newton offspring, only better!

Pros:

• Flavor was perfectly fruity and not artificial tasting; good oaty flavor, too.
• The price wasn’t too bad and for 180 calories each with 5 grams of protein we’re most happyfaced.
• Filled the empty space we had for those fruit bars & figgy cookies we used to love.

Cons:

• This does contain gluten-free oats, so they’re not for those xgfx oat sensitive people.
• The plastic wrapper. There has got to be a more earth-friendly alternative to this.
• The size. While pretty substantial, we kinda wished there were just a smidge bigger.

Reviewed by Jessy Farrell